Sunday, March 5, 2017

What was God up to before creation?

In this post, I aim to clarify passages in the Bible that speak of God's actions or world/cosmic events that are said to happen "before" or "from" certain historical chronological markers. In the course of the study, I want to get a handle on whatever activities God was up to before the creation. There are two such markers that come up in Scripture. Those two markers are (1) "the foundation of the world" and (2) "before the ages." The most interesting discussion will be on the marker "before the ages;" but we will need to work up to it. We first need to address "the foundation of the world."

Sometimes, the phrase occurs as "from the foundation of the world" and sometimes it appears as "before the foundation of the world.

From the foundation of the world:
How should we read verses that say "from the foundation of the world?" Consider Hebrews 9:25-26.

25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. (NRSV)

It is clear in most translations that Jesus did not have to suffer again and again after the foundation of the world. The verse would make no sense if translated as before the foundation of the world. The Hebrews author is showing that the Lord's one sacrifice is far superior to the repeated sacrifices offered under the Mosaic system. While this clear understanding is fresh in our brains, let us read Revelation 13:8 which features the same Greek structure that NRSV translates in Hebrews 9:26 as "since the foundation...."

and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

In the above reading, the focus is on names that were not written in the "book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered." In other translations, the focus is on the actual slaughter.

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast―all those whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. (NIV2011)

Many people, when they read the above verse, hear in their minds, "... the Lamb who was slain before the creation of the world." In either case (the writing of names or the Lamb's slaughter), the chronological marker is after the foundation of the world. So after that time marker, the Lamb's book of life was in preparation (Revelation 3:9). It is also true that the Lamb was slaughtered after the foundation of the world.

Several more Bible passages also feature the phrase "from [after] the foundation of the world. They are Matthew 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50 and Revelation 17:8.

Foundation:
Before we move forward in this study, we should not ignore a translation issue with the term "foundation." There is very strong evidence that the word should be translated with the meaning of "falling" or "morally corrupting."

The word typically translated in the New Testament as "foundation" appears in verb form in 2 Corinthians 4:9 as "struck down" (NRSV).

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

W. Scott Taylor wrote a little Greek study of the term. His conclusions can be read here. He concludes, in part:

An alternate translation that would be equally as admissible if not more so than the traditional rendering would be:
“In view of the fall, or moral descent of the inhabitants of the world or social order.”

Bill Petri presents a detailed analysis of the phrase here where he argues forcefully that the Greek word typically translated "foundation" should be translated with the meaning of a falling or moral decay. He argues that the reason most translators prefer "foundation" is that such a translation supports the traditional assumption of divine foreknowledge.

Therefore, in the above example of Revelation 13:8, an equally appropriate translation would be:

and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, anyone whose name has not been written since the moral corruption of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

And all who are dwelling on the earth will be worshiping it, everyone whose name is not written in the scroll of life of the Lambkin slain from the disruption of the world.

The CLV also translates Hebrews 9:26 (discussed above) this way:

since then He must often be suffering from the disruption of the world, yet now, once, at the conclusion of the eons, for the repudiation of sin through His sacrifice, is He manifest.

We may be well advised to avoid making too much of the meaning of "foundation of the world." While it may mean "the creation of the world" it can also (maybe more likely) mean "the great fall of mankind," referencing Genesis 6:5-6.

Before the foundation of the World:
Now that we are thoroughly suspicious of the meaning of "foundation of the world," we will look at the passages that feature the phrase, "before the foundation of the world." Each passage will be analyzed individually.

John 17:24

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

God loved Jesus before the world became corrupt. I have no problem with that understanding; nor do I have a problem with God loving Jesus even earlier, like, before the creation. One of the things God was "up to" before the foundation of the world is loving Jesus.

Ephesians 1:4

just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

In other words, it was in God's plan before this chronological marker that there would be a people (who turned out to be "us") that would receive his blessing of holiness and blamelessness. Whether that plan was formed before the corruption of mankind or before the creation does not seem to doctrinally matter. The reading of Genesis 2-3 reads to me that mankind was expected to be holy and blameless.

1 Peter 1:20

He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.

From the context ("You... were ransomed... with the precious blood of Christ," 1 Peter 1:18-19), this verse smells like Jesus was destined before the great corruption, or before creation, to be redeemer. That smell is not correct. My favorite translation (NRSV) is terrible here! The word translated "destined" is the Greek word usually translated "foreknown." The translators apparently thought about "foreknown" and decided it didn't make a whole lot of sense since Jesus "was in the beginning with God" (John 1:2) so they figured Peter meant "destined." Well, "foreknown" means "known" in some contexts (Acts 26:5 and the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon 6:13) and "foreloved" in others (not in the "Biblical" sense). "Knew" means "loved" in these contexts: Amos 3:2; Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 10:15; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 7:22-23; I Corinthians 8:3; 2 Timothy 2:19. "Foreknew" can be understood as "knew" or "preloved." Sometimes the context makes clear the proper understanding. New American Bible Revised Edition gets it right (also ESV!, NASB, NET Bible, GW, World English Bible, Young's Literal).

He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you....

... although, I think, "He was loved..." makes better sense.

Before the time of eons:
There is a phrase in 2 Timothy 1:9 and Titus 1:2 that is often translated "before time began." A literal translation would be "before time eternal."

2 Timothy 1:9

8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

To translate the phrase as "before eternity" really would not make sense. Translating the phrase as "before time began" assumes a lot. Firstly, it assumes that time had a beginning. Further, it assumes that something happened before time; and that assumption requires that time existed before time. What a contradiction! These difficulties seem to have motivated the translations that denote "a really-really long time ago." The meaning of the phrase has to mean "a really-really long time ago." Indeed, verses 9-10 have a feel of being quoted from a larger hymn or verbal liturgy (HarperCollins Study Bible notes). We might expect language that leans toward the poetic and less literal. The Expositor's Greek New Testament explains the Greek:

πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων: expresses the notion of that which is anterior to the most remote period in the past conceivable by any imagination that man knows of.

Greg Boyd summarizes the passage quite nicely.

God foreknew (because he foreordained) that there would be a class of people (believers) who would keep covenant with him, and he ordained that they would be showered with grace “before the ages."

That summary really works for this article; but I am motivated to root out what specifically was going on "ages ago" (RSV) in this verse. The New Interpreter's One Volume Commentary has this:

This power demonstrates God's grace, something that was always part of God's salvific plan even "before the ages began" and was made known or "revealed" (phaneroō) through the "appearing" (epiphaneia) of Christ Jesus in the flesh.

The commentator believes the focus is on God's graciousness as a permanent feature of God's character. Again, the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary has this:

“Before times eternal” refers to the eternal purpose of God, not to Christ (or “us”) as pre-existent.

I have to admit that the above understanding is not evident in my favorite translation, the NRSV. The NRSV's reading makes it sound like "Christ Jesus" was given "before the ages began," but the above scholars are comfortable rebuffing that understanding. The reading that it was God's grace that was given long ago (because it is an everlasting feature of his character) is much clearer in the NABRE translation.

He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began.

A careful reading of the verse thus dispels the notion that the vocation of Jesus Christ as redeemer was necessarily something firmly set before creation or even before the sin of Adam and Eve.

Evidence that "before eternity" denotes a time not nearly as long ago as suggested by the literal meaning of the words is found in an examination of Titus 1:2.

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began— 3 in due time he revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior, 4 To Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

The only way verse 2 can make sense is if it means that God promised eternal life to a prophet or a people a long time ago, but after Creation Week! Otherwise, to whom did God promise eternal life? The crazy thing about this particular promise is that the first notion of "eternal life" in the Bible comes at Daniel 12:1-2, in the second century B.C. That's less than 300 years before the writing of Titus! Paul is using flowery language in hyperbole to talk about God's work of redemption for eternal life through the word that Paul was preaching.

Here is what the Bible says about what God was up to before creation. Some of the divine activities are not necessarily pre-creation activities; but I am comfortable accepting them as such. God was up to:

(1) loving Jesus
(2) planning for a holy and blameless people
(3) being gracious―a divine character trait we enjoy today

That's about it. The Bible does not reveal a whole lot about what God was up to before creation; but I am comfortable accepting this short list.

5 comments:

Am satisfied with your summation on this, Neil. Am thinking you are, too. Some additional thoughts, if you don't mind: Would you agree that the "First notion of eternal life" occurred in Genesis 1:16-17 when God warned Adam that death would occur if he ate of the forbidden fruit? Could it also be possible that "before time", "before the ages began" could be referrencing that point reached in Genesis 5, where man began to measure time? Note that in verse three, Adam was 130 years old when he fathered Seth. There is no record of the ages of Adam and Eve when they parented Cain and Abel. Perhaps "before the ages" "before time" indicates before "At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord", Genesis 4:25-26? Interesting :-)

Mom follows my blog!Your citation of Genesis 1:16-17 (along with Genesis 1:14-15) is invoked usually in support of the notion that God created time. Time was already moving along by the time God created the lights in the sky. The lights afforded a means by which time could me marked.Genesis 2:16-17 warns that the man would die "in the day" that he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was not created as an immortal. He was always made of dust (Genesis 3:19). God changed his mind about the threat of instant death. Instead, the first couple were driven from the garden. It was always the plan that humans would return to the ground; but now there is something horrible about it. People's bodies fail and die. Possibly the original plan was for people to be translated like Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).

It is interesting that there is no record of Adam's age when he fathered Cain and Abel. "Ages," means "long ages" - as in, eons (aionios). That elapse is much more telescopic than the age of a person - even an old dude like Methuselah. It literally means "eternal" but that understanding has to be rejected due to the context of the two verses that have that word.

***25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. (NRSV)***

***and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.***

It really shows how the phrase is probably better understood in a progressive "after the foundation of the world" sense.

That seems to be the case in Romans 8:28-30. The Ephesians passage comes across as a corporate choice to me. Individuals were not in view; but types of individuals were. I try to thoroughly think through Romans 8 every time before I open my mouth about it; and I may have just opened my mouth prematurely.

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Leaders in the church generally do their teaching so that everybody can rest their faith upon a fluffy pile of pillows. Oh, we want to challenge people; but we don’t want to challenge them with near the force that the Bible does. If there are two answers to a question and one of them is difficult but the other one is simple, we promote the simple answer even if the difficult explanation is the Biblical explanation. I don’t think a Christian’s faith is served by dishonesty. When one’s assumptions are shaken up, we either give up or we work through it and rework our belief system. When people give up, it is unfortunate. When people work through difficulties, they become stronger for it. I also think it is best to hear about difficult topics from other believers who have themselves worked through them. I see the church populated by people with very weak faith. Some might call their faith “fragile;” and that may be a good characterization. I do not believe we should insulate these people from hard teachings. Some day, they need to put away the baby bottle and pick up a fork! It is not ideal to hear about such stuff from atheists who really don’t care about your faith. Most of my articles follow this value. I am a believer who has worked through some very difficult “ah ha!” learnings. I want to share what I have learned with a view towards strengthening your faith.